Wendy Kenigsberg/Cornell University
Bioengineered microbes may one day be used to store the sun’s energy, as well as absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide to later turn it into fuel. This illustration features microbe images taken by postdoctoral researchers Youngchan Park and Bing Fu in chemistry. Engineers go microbial to store energy, sequester CO2
December 14, 2020
By borrowing nature’s blueprints for photosynthesis, Cornell bioengineers have found a way to efficiently absorb and store large-scale, low-cost renewable energy from the sun – while sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide to use later as a biofuel.
The key: Let bioengineered microbes do all the work.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The advance could cut production costs and reduce the size of microelectronics for sensing and communication. MIT researchers have developed a bright, efficient silicon LED, pictured, that can be integrated directly onto computer chips. The advance could reduce cost and improve performance of microelectronics that use LEDs for sensing or communication. Courtesy of the researchers Courtesy of the researchers
Light-emitting diodes – LEDs – can do way more than illuminate your living room. These light sources are useful microelectronics too.
Smartphones, for example, can use an LED proximity sensor to determine if you’re holding the phone next to your face (in which case the screen turns off). The LED sends a pulse of light toward your face, and a timer in the phone measures how long it takes that light to reflect back to the phone, a proxy for how close the phone is to your face. L